In regards to opening an eBay store, I think that would be a question of what product volume you want to list really. I wouldn't personally consider any store format unless I had the volume of products to warrant it

If anything, I would say the rules for sellers keeps getting worse. For example, the Top Rated Seller requirements have recently changed to a "defect rate" type system . For 3 months I was top rated and would have continued to be a top rated seller if they hadn't changed the requirements. With the change, it moved me down to "above standard". With eBay it's always a moving target. But I deal with it because of the heavy traffic they get. I sell on several other listing sites and haven't made a sale on them but I am a power seller on eBay.

eBay itself recommends the most basic store only for those who are listing 50 or more items continuously. That's probably a good number to start at.

Yep i agree more BS than ever, so i do not even try to be a top rated seller anymore, what with one day shipping, defect rate, 12 month rating, free shipping which is a load of crap, we all know shipping is not free, and added to the item price, even when you show shipping rates, Ebay takes a cut on that now, so just a Above standard rating these days, though my sales exceed most top rated sellers, so items still sell despite not meeting the requirements, at the end of the day, if the price is right and the buyer wants the item they will purchase it, Ebay does bring the traffic required.

This answer is for newbies that are asking the same question as above.It just depends on what product niche you want to sell. For example I had an ebay store and was trying to sell lingerie and ebay would not let me list more then 4 items at a time because of their seller limits. 2 for women's lingerie and 2 for men's lingerie which is the ebay seller limits for a new seller. After you sell your first or couple of items than they give you anywhere from 30 to 90 days to be able to list more items for the same product niche. You have to read all of ebay's new seller policies before you even consider getting a store so that you can pick the right product niche to sell that doesn't have any new seller selling limits. A lot of niche categories have there limits so make sure you chose the right one. Start off selling a few products individually to see the success rate of what you're selling. So that you don't lose any money use a dropshipping supplier in case you don't make any sales or very few sales. Don't invest any money on inventory just yet until you know you can sell all of your products successfully. That's why I emphasize to use a dropshipping supplier at first. Take advantage of the market research lab here on Salehoo so that you can see the level of competition for what you want to sell. The higher the competition, the less sales you're going to make unless you sell your products for a much lower price then your competitors. Usually the only ones making a lot of sales are seasoned power sellers that have been selling for a long time and buy in large bulk amounts that go in the thousands and/or get all of their products straight from the manufacturer at a very discounted price because they buy in bulk and they cut out the middle man which in this case would be the supplier. Test the waters first and try selling a few items at a time before you get an ebay store. Personally I'd much rather sell on my own store, I just recently closed my ebay store because I disagree with their policies. But even with your own store you still need to do a lot of work before you make your first sale. You have to SEO optimize your store, have an SSL certificate on your store, create backlinks to your store through social media sites, your own blogs. guest blog posting, get subscribers to your email newsletter so that you can advertise through your email list of subscribers and current and past customers, participate in well established forums for your product niche, but first find out if they let you post backlinks to your store. You can use use MailChimp to make your email subscription form, and email newsletter. They have a free and paid service, but use the free one at first until your business grows. Use Wordpress for your blogs, godaddy has some good prices for hosting your Wordpress site. I suggest that at first before you get your own store. (not an ebay store) you start selling a few items on ebay or Amazon to sharpen your skills, and start networking with like minded people. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS PERSISTENCE, PERSISTENCE, PERSISTENCE AND NEVER GIVE AND IF YOU FAIL GET UP AND TRY AGAIN. A large majority of the businesses that fail is because of lack of persistence and they give up too easily. Rome was not built in one day so never give up. You will start developing your seller skills eventually but it's going to take some time. Don't go on and invest money on advertising on Google AdWords just yet until you have a high page rank or else all or most of your ads are going to come up on the third page of the search results or further down. Hardly anyone ever looks beyond the first page of the search results. You will just be wasting your money, so do other forms of free or cheap advertising at first. You can get a lot of free learning resources through the internet, you just have to look for them and NEVER GIVE UP. I hope this helps you and a lot of newbies. I can go on and on but this is a forum and not a pdf file or an ebook. Lol j/k best of luck to you and all of the newbies.

P.S. Don't forget to take notes from everything beneficial that you learn.

I do not like the seller limits. Not sure if I would have jumped in if I had known only 20 items a month. If you don't have the right items you may not get a sale. Out of my 20 handbags I had 10 sell in one week. The other ten are moving much slower. After first month I will try to have limits increased.